8. Love

CHAPTER 8

love

I wished Kris was close enough to Leo's size so that we could have borrowed some jeans from him. Not only would they have been more practical for what we were about to do, they'd have covered Leo's incredible thighs.

I felt guilty drooling over him while he looked forlornly out the window, rolling his massive shoulders inward to avoid brushing against me. Despite his efforts to shrink himself, he still took up over half the tiny cab, and it was impossible to ignore the hurt seeping from his pores.

He was sad about me—about us—and a small part of me wished I didn't resent him so much. But I did, and he couldn't really do anything about it, so here we were, silently making our way to the Hansons' ranch in a truck that felt like a rolling tomb.

I tried to keep my eyes on the road—really, I did—but his thigh spread was the sexiest thing I'd seen in a minute, and I had no control over my eyeballs. Also, even though his trunks had better coverage than those damned lounge pants, there was a definite bulge.

If that was the state of things soft… Jesus .

My brain helpfully supplied a visual of what he might look like hard. Cursing myself, I turned my eyes back to the road. " Shit !"

An armadillo was lazily making its way across the two-lane, and I had to swerve sharply to avoid it. The two passenger-side tires left the asphalt for a few seconds.

I shot my right hand out, hitting bare skin, and almost went off the road again. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered, swallowing thickly as he looked down at my hand. His hairy thigh flexed under my grip, and I absolutely refused to register whether his cock had twitched at the contact.

"This is us," I said, barely pulling my hand back in time to make a Hail Mary turn into the Hanson property. I cursed the fact that their driveway wasn't paved because bouncing over the rutted-out road did nothing to improve Leo's… situation. We were about halfway up the drive when we came upon Lynn, Mr. Hanson, and the calf in question.

"Oh, that poor baby is mad mad," Leo said, jumping out of the truck before I could put it in Park.

I took my time grabbing my keys and my gear to cover for the fact that I couldn't tear my eyes from his round, muscled ass. Refocusing on the task at hand, I saw that Leo had been right. The young calf wasn't just stuck, it was struggling so violently that Lynn and Mr. Hanson were too busy preventing it from garroting itself on the fence to even begin trying to untangle it. We were going to have to cut it out.

I went to exit my truck, only to nearly be choked by my own seat belt, which I'd forgotten to take off. I undid it, almost fell to the ground, and then jogged over to the others. Thankfully, they were all too busy with the calf to see my incompetence.

"Hey, Lynn," Leo said as he crouched down in front of the calf.

"Leo, wait," I called, worried that the terrified animal might injure him.

Leo, however, had that determined look on his face. The one that said he was going in no matter what. My heart squeezed with nostalgia. I used to love seeing that look on his face, especially when he was aiming it at me.

"There, there, little one," he crooned, going to his bare knees in the dirt. "Why don't you calm down so we can help you?"

The calf, still kicking out at Mr. Hanson, side-eyed Leo. Leo kept murmuring sweet nothings, and, after a few more halfhearted kicks, the little bastard stopped struggling.

I shouldn't have been surprised—Leo had always had a way with animals. Cows loved it when he got on the ground with them and held their enormous heads in his lap, dogs of all sizes and temperaments nudged him for pets, and even the most skittish horses relaxed in his presence.

Stop idolizing his wonderful qualities, Love. He chandeliered the second you admitted to being overwhelmed.

"Here, use these," I said, handing him a pair of heavy-duty leather work gloves.

"Thanks, Love."

Leo slipped on the gloves, then worked the barbed wire from around the calf's neck. Mr. Hanson approached with the snippers, and the calf started kicking again.

"Shh, shh," Leo murmured. "Mr. Hanson just wants to help you get free."

The calf settled again and let Mr. Hanson snip the barbed wire from around its ankles.

I certainly hadn't been careful with Leo's feelings when he showed up yesterday, and instead of an overreaction, he'd only expressed sadness. I'd assumed he'd continued going to therapy the past several years, but I was still surprised to see its impact.

Now that the calf was free of the wire, Leo wrapped his enormous arms around its middle and pulled it away from the fence. The second it was loose, their truce ended, and the calf kicked out, catching the tops of Leo's thighs. Leo fell back, sustaining a couple of pretty serious cuts and scrapes, but Mr. Hanson was able to get a rope on the calf. Seconds later, he had it in his truck and was transporting it back to its pen with a honk and a wave.

Asshole coulda at least made sure Leo wasn't hurt.

"Thank you so much for helping," Lynn said, patting one of Leo's meaty shoulders. She then turned to me. "Love, I'm sorry to do this on your day off, but Levy over at Wild Heart texted me, and two of their mares are about to go, including the one that had a breech delivery the last time. They were hoping one of us could hang out in case anything went sideways."

I didn't really believe in weekends anyway, so I lifted a shoulder. "I don't mind. I just need to drop off Leo at the bunkhouse, take care of his cuts, and I'll head right over."

Leo shrugged, seemingly unaffected by the blood running down his legs as he loped back to the truck. "It's not that bad. Let's just go to Wild Heart, get me cleaned up, and I'll help where I can. I've done it before."

That was true; he'd helped with the horses a few times, including one offseason foaling.

Lynn scratched her chin as she watched him climb into the tiny cab. "We have a medical bag for humans in the waiting room in their therapy barn. Check out the lac on his thigh—it probably needs a few stitches."

I glowered at her—she'd heard all about my big heartbreak and knew how awkward I felt. She grimaced apologetically. "It sounded like they needed all the help they could get."

"Fine," I hissed, even though I wasn't that mad. "But you owe me."

"Are you kidding?" She nudged me, her eyes lighting up as she popped her brows. "This is all part of your apprenticeship. The animals are easy; it's always the humans who give us fits."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Must they be self-inflicted wounds, though?"

"How dramatic."

I rolled my eyes, and Lynn simply smiled wider. She'd always had a soft spot for Leo—really, who didn't?—and I suspected she was trying to encourage some kind of reunion.

As if.

"Fine. Let's get going, I guess."

Leo looked super uncomfortable when I got to the truck, like he could tell we'd been talking about him.

"There are clean bandannas in the glove box," I said, noting that the biggest cut had begun to ooze blood again.

He hit the button and took one of the neatly folded squares, holding it against the cut. The way his jaw tightened made me think it hurt more than he was letting on. No matter how angry I still was, I hated the idea of him being in pain.

"It won't take us long to get there," I said, aiming for Wild Heart while driving as carefully as I could to avoid jostling him.

We arrived at the big equine therapy center a few minutes later, and Leo grunted as he got out of the truck. I hurried to his side and put my arm around his waist, taking some of the weight off the leg. "You should've told me that it was hurting this bad."

"It's okay, Love. I just need to sit down."

Erik approached us, a curious look on his face and a pair of jeans in his hands. "Lynn said that Leo helped with the Hansons' rogue calf and needed to borrow some jeans. I have some that are a little loose on me that should fit him pretty well."

"Thanks, Erik. I'm going to get him cleaned and stitched up first, if you don't mind."

"Of course. Are you staying for the foaling? We have at least a couple that are probably going to go today."

At least. Great .

"Yep. And Leo here is going to help once he's all patched up."

"Good man." Erik smacked Leo's arm and sent me a sharp grin—along with a tiny salute—before taking off.

We walked into the big barn, and I directed Leo to one of the chairs in the waiting room. I found the med bag under the coffee station and knelt in front of him.

When I took the bandanna off the cut, I cursed under my breath. "Leo, this is worse than I thought. We probably should have taken you to the hospital."

"I trust you, Love."

Again with the soulful eyes. Between the bulge in his shorts and his deep, searching gazes, I was struggling to remember why I'd been so angry with him.

I had taken care of lacerations before. Hell, Tiberius's injury yesterday was much bigger. That said, the cut on Leo's inner thigh was the largest cut I'd cared for on a human, and it was deep.

I jogged over to the tack room for a spare towel and returned to the waiting room. Setting the towel under Leo's legs, I donned a pair of latex gloves and grabbed the saline wound wash. This was definitely not the pristine environment of a doctor's office, but folks out here didn't want to fuss with all that when there was work to do.

Settling between his powerful thighs, I ignored how petite and femme I felt and instead recited the alphabet backward while rinsing and debriding the wound.

"Fuck, that calf really got you good," I said as I switched to the antibacterial spray.

"I'm just glad they found it in time."

I went over the treatment steps in my mind. "I'm gonna have to put in at least two layers of stitches. Should I text Erik to bring you some whiskey or something?"

Leo shook his head. "Just do it. Faster is better."

He sat silently as I went to work. I was nervous about the deeper stitches, but they went in well, and I was careful to align the closing stitches to minimize scarring.

I examined the rest of his scratched-up leg and tried not to be distracted by the way his warmth seeped through my gloves. I was only moderately successful.

That was a lie—I wanted to kiss every single one of his boo-boos and make them all better. Worse, my position between his thighs put me up close and personal with his distracting dick.

Shaking myself back to reality, I continued my examination and found a sneaky little cut right above the back of his knee that required a couple of stitches.

"Here," I said, patting my thigh. "Put your foot here."

He did as I asked, and that shifted… things… leading me to wonder if this was a punishment or a reward. Either way, it took every last bit of my willpower not to shove my face into his groin and inhale.

Get it together, Love.